Improvement in revolving fire-arms



W. H. PHILIP.

Revolving Fire-Arms Patented August 26, 1873.

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Amway? UNITE STATES PATENT rrron.

WILLIAM H. PHILIP, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK.

IMPROVEMENTIN REVOLVING FIRE-ARMS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 142,175, dated August26, 1873; application filed June 7, 1873.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM H. PHILIP, of Brooklyn, in the county ofKings and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvementin Revolving Fire Arms, of which the following is a specification:

My invention relates to the combination of a sliding pawl-bar and aseries of pawls with a series of revolving cartridge-cylinders arrangedon the same axis, and provided with spiral and straight grooves toenable them to be turned in succession, whereby, when one cylinder isexhausted, it sets the next one in motion, and ceases itself, to rotate.The invention also consists in connecting the pawlbar and series ofpawls with the hammer, as hereinafter described.

Figure 1 is a longitudinal sectional elevation of a pistol provided withthree cartridgecylinders according to my plan. Fig. 2 is a sideelevation of the cylinders. Fig. 3 is a rearend elevation of the frontcylinder. Fig. 4 is a front-end elevation of the middle cylinder, andFig. 5 is a front-end elevation of the rear cylinder.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts.

A, B, and 0 represent the cylinders, which are arranged on the spindleD, end to end, between the barrel E and the breech or recoil block F.The cylinder A has seven chambers, and the others six. The front andmiddle cylinders each have one chamber, G, reserved for serving as aportion of the barrel to the cylinder behind, said chamber not beingrecessed at the rear end for the flange of the cartridge as the otherchambers H are, so as not to be exposed to the force with which theexplosion would tend in said recess to project the barrel from thestock. The rearmost cylinder and the middle one have each a needle orfiring-pin,I, arranged in the place of a chamber. The front cylinder hasa stud-pin, J, on its rear end, near the axis, projecting into a littleannular recess, K, in the front end of cylinder B, in which recess is astud, L, against which stud J will act at its last movement immediatelyafter its last chamber has been fired to turn cylinder B for bringingits first chamber up to be fired, and cylinder B has a similar stud-pinon its rear end projecting into an annular recess, M, in the front endof the rearmost cylinder to turn it the first stage of its revolutionafter the last charge has been fired from the said middle cylinder. Forturning the cylinders, a pawl-bar, K, is arranged along under thecylinders in a chamber, L, and so connected to the hammer M that, whenit is cooked, the bar is thrust forward, and the bar has a pawl, N, foreach cylinder, and the cylinders are provided with longitudinal groovesO and spiral grooves P in the surface, in which the pawls work torevolve the cylinders. They merely slide back in the longitudinalgrooves when the arm is fired without having any effeet on thecylinders; but when the hammer is cooked and the pawls are thrustforward, they are turned into the spiral grooves, in consequence of thelatter being deeper than the others, and turn the cylinders; but thereis in each cylinder one longitudinal groove as deep as the spiralgroove, so that the pawl is not turned into the latter, but allowed towork forward and backward without turning the cylinder. The object is toallow those cylinders which are not firing to remain at rest, while theone which is firing revolves. Such grooves are shown in the two rearmostcylinders at 0, Fig. 2. These grooves are directly under the needles orfiring-pins Q in these two cylinders, by which the blow is transmittedfrom the hammer to the cartridges in the two most forward cylinders toallow cylindersBG to remain at rest while A is firing, and 0 while A andB are firing. The corresponding groove in cylinder A is under chamber G,which is the one which serves for a portion of the barrel for the twocylinders behind it. Besides the grooves O of cylinders B 0, they eachhave another groove, It, out of which the pawls do not turn into spiralgrooves to turn them. The one in the middle cylinder is opposite thechamber, which serves for a portion of the barrel to the rearmostcylinder, to allow this chamber to remain in position for this purposewhile the rearmost cylinder is discharging, and the one in the saidrearmost cylinder is opposite the last chamber fired at the end of theoperation, when the cylinders have to be taken 0%, reloaded, andreadjusted. The front cylinder has one more chamber than the number tobe loaded, the one in excess being for the barrel to the next. Themiddle cylinder has one less chamber than the front one to make room forthe needle or firing-pin, and its chamber for the barrel of the rearcylinder is not loaded, so that it carries one less cartridge than thefront cylinder. The rearmost cylinder has one less chamber than thefront one, also, to make room for its firing-pin; but all of itschambers are charged, as it does not require to have one reserved,because there is no cylinder behind it.

The cylinders being all charged, B and G are put on the spindle so thattheir firing-pins are uppermost and in front of the hammer, and thefront cylinder is put on so that the barrel-chamber G comes at the topand in front of the firing-pins in the chambers behind. The firing thenprogresses in regular order until the last cartridge in A is fired, whenthe stud-pin J comes to the stud L of the next cylinder B, and sets thelatter in motion, so that the pawl for it switches into the spiralgroove, and the two cylinders A and B turn one stage together.ThecylinderAthenhavingbrought its chamber G into line With the barrel,and its deep straight groove 0 to the pawl ceases to revolve, and themiddle one revolves, and its cartridges are fired till they areexhausted; then its stud-pin J sets cylinder B inv motion,

and it ceases to revolve in the same manner as before in case of thecylinders A and B. When all the cartridges are fired from the lastcylinder all the cylinders are removed from the spindle and relieved ofthe shells, loaded, and put on again, as before.

Any number of cylinders desired may be arranged and operated in a seriesin this way.

The pawls N have a spring, S, to hold them in the grooves, so as toallow them to shift with the varying depths of said grooves.

Having thus described myinvention, I claim as new and desire to secureby Letters Patcut-- 1. The combination of the sliding pawl-bar and aseries of pawls with a series of cylinders connected by a stud-pin, J L,and each having groove, 0, for its pawl arranged in such manner that,when one cylinder is exhausted, itsets the next one in motion, and thenitself ceases to rotate, substantially as described.

2. The pawl-bar K, hammer M, and pawls N, combined with the series ofcylinders, substantially as specified.

. WILLIAM H. PHILIP.

Witnesses:

, T. B.Mos11n1z,

ALEX. F. Ronna'rs.

